Hundru falls is one of the most picturesque falls surrounding Ranchi. Its grandeur, splendour, and beauty is unparelleled. It is the only place in Ranchi district which was so highly esteemed by the Gazeteer of India written during British India by one English scholar. It commented that such a place in the west was to be considered a place worth seeing even from a distance. It is situated at a distance of about 45 kms from Ranchi (24 kilometres on Ranchi - Purulia Road upto Angara and further 21 kilometres inside. This distance is almost the same if one visits from Ranchi via Ormanjhi and Sikidiri. It derives its name from the village where it is situated. Hundru is a small hamlet nearby. This village is uniquely situated in ((Angara)) block of Ranchi district in Jharkhand state of India. It is at the fag end of the Upper Chhotanagpur plateau, and if calculated from the peak of the hillock, which separates the village and the fall, the lower Chhotanagpur plate lies over 500 feet below. It is just a rare natural phenomena that one can see here both the plates of the Earth put together, one over the other. In other places such phenomena are rarely perceivable because the plates of the Earth generally joined together with rocks, hillocks, hills, soil, waterbodies and jungles in such a manner that the distinct plates seem to be one series of mountain range. It may be mentioned here that the major portion of the Ranchi district lies on Upper Chhotanagpur plate and a small area lies in the East on Lower Chhotanagpur plate. However, there is no known place in the district where one can clearly see the plates are put together, one over the other. The ((Swarnrekha river)) falls directly from the Upper plate to the lower, and the height is calculated to be 320 feet which one can clearly see from below. It is just a mistake to calculate in such a way, because this point of fall is the second point of fall, somewhere between the first and the third point of falls. One can see all the three points of fall from a distance, from a hillock on the lower plate. It calculated from this point of view including the first point of fall, the total height of the fall of water becomes 343 feet. Earlier, there was only one point of fall, which became three due to fall or slippage of layers of rocks, making a flat area in between and another rocky field above concealing the first point of fall, if seen from the bottom of the fall. Even this estimate of height is true only for the northern stream, which flows whole of the year. Let us not forget that Hundru falls is a twin falls - one the northern and the other is southern fall. The southern fall is almost perpendicular, and the height is 373 feet. It has been dried up due to construction of a dam at Getalsud. This southern part of the fall remains dried up almost the whole year except in the rainy season when it gets heavy rain or the gates of the ((Getalsud Bandh or Dam)) are opened to prevent overflow of water and any damage to the dam. Seeing the swarnrekha river falling perpendicularly from this portion of the twin Hundru falls give an unimaginable level of happiness. One can see from above to the base of the fall where a beautiful pool is formed. There is also a pool only few metres downstream. The downstream is beautifully flanked by two hillocks - Hundru Jara and Sikidiri hill No 2, the name given to it after creation of a Water electricity generation power house No 2 of a capacity of 65 Megawats. It is situated beside the second water pool and it is visible from above. It makes a beautiful scene where the ancient and the modern meet together. It may be mentioned here that the plates and rocks are formed sometime between 200 to 400 crore years ago while the power house was built only after 1960s. This power house is a part of Sikidiri Jal Vidyut Pariyojna with the power house no 1 situated at Sikidiri. A bright metal pipe is seen through which water is poured on the turbine of power house no 2. The small dam above for storage of water coming through canal from Swarnrekha Bandh at Getalsud cannot be seen from this side of Hundru fall, but one can clearly see the canal by the side of hill no 2, built for the purpose of discharging excess of water from the storage above. When it flows, one can be mistaken it to be another waterfall making wonderful scene of the whole area. There is a visible serpentine road on the other side to reach the power house no 2 leading directly to the lower plate whithout any idea that one is going from the upper plate to the lower. It is because that portion is just like a series of mountains and hills covered with rocks and jungles. This road branches from Ormanjhi from Ranchi Hazaribag road. People coming to Hundru fall from this road see other side of the natural beauty. For them there are two other attraction - the first is ((Birsa Jaivik Udyan)) near Ormanjhi and Muta Crocodile Breeding Center polularly known as ((Muta Crocodile Farm)) on the way to Sikidiri and to the bottom of the Hundru falls. They need to cross the Swarnrekha there on foot to see other side of the fall especially from the above. This is why people generally visit Hundru falls from Angara side. They, first of all like to see a hundreds of years old unique garden of creeper at Maheshpur, under which there is Grand Old Shiv or ((Budha Mahadev)), a contradition in terms, because the Lord Shiv is never old, but always young. Some of the visitors also go to ((Sunuwa Beda)), only about three kilometres away from Maheshpur, to see another water fall with a natural lake surrounded by hills. It is some kind of additional pleasure to visit Hundru falls after visiting the Grand Old Shiv at Maheshpur. Here at Hundru falls, one see the love lorn Lord Shiva in deep meditation. The ancient Shiv Lingam is in the middle of the Swarnrekha river just about a feet or so before the upper plate or rock ends. There is a secret cave beneath that goes below up to the stream. There is a story attached to this place. It runs like this: Having abandoned Parvati's dead but headless body at Rajrappa, famous for one of the shaktipith ((Chhinnamastika Temple)), Lord Shiv came here to meditate. There flowed an underground stream through a natural tunnel or cave to Rajrappa where lied the headless body of his wife Uma, an epithet of Parvati. The Ganga is known mythologically to fall from the locks of Shiv to the earth, and people believed that this sacred water was flowing to Chhinnamastika to make her enlive. It was this belief among the local people that they used to go to Chhinnamastika temple through this cave. They were said to worship here Lord Shiv in Hundru and Chhinnamastika in Rajrappa. According to the story, once the priest of Hundru went to Chhinnamastika through this cave and found gods there feasting. It was awkward situation for them. And when the priest returned here, the gods filled the cave with stones and soil. This tunnel was believed to have originated from the foot of the fall. This Shiv Ling is so beautiful that people tempted to steal it. It is only few years ago (perhaps in 2005 - 06) a tourist group from West Bengal stole it and put it in their bus. In the meantime, a local went there to worship and found Lord Shiv disappeared. The locals searched all the possible places and found the Shiv Ling in a bus. The locals made the tourist to pay fine for theft of the Shiv Ling. When the Shiv Linga was taken back to the place where it was naturally established from ages, a great storm arose from below and the river water with it. The flow of the Swarnrekha river was reversed and people also saw a rainbow there. They beg pardon of the god and pleaded ignorance of the tourist who mistaken the Shiv Linga for a simple stone. Within few minutes the disturbances were subdued. People believe that the Lord Shiv here, the presiding god of the fall grants boons to the persons whoever asks for one. There is another deity called Jharna Devta, the presiding god of the fall. It is also a Shiv Linga, a spectacularly different stone of oily and black colour having about three feet diametre. People assemble there on 15th of January every year to worship. They sacrifice goat there as offering to Lord Shiva. This is a matter of anthropological interest, apart from geographical, botanical or geological interest in the area. The morning is particularly striking there. One can see the rising sun coming out of the downstream Swarnrekha. One can see the river along with eight hills in the front whith lush green forest. There is also a Shiv Temple on the bank of the river along with Mahavir Hanuman Temple. These two temples are built only few decades ago and the deities are cereminially established which is called Pran Pratishtha in Hinduism. Having seen Hundru falls from the upper plate, one is thrilled to explore the area a little more. However, before going below to the lower plate or the base of the fall, there are two more places to visit. The secret cave near the Shiv Linga is not recommended to visit because it is highly risky job. Only a slip can make a fall from 320 feet with no chance of survival. And above all, one can see only bigger sized flying foxes and bats there. However, if one is interested in seeing flying foxes or bats, a visit to nearby Bagh Lata (Tiger's Den or cave) is relatively safe. It is only about 500 metres from there. Nobody knows how long this cave is on the two sides. One can enter or exit this cave from below or from above because it is only a small stretch of few metres. In the middle, there are two caves on both side. There is a small well inside with water, but on only one side of the cave. This cave can house over thousand people at a time. Presently this houses bigger sized flying foxes and bats. Many questions are unanswered about this place, because nobody knows what is there inside the cave and how much long it is. It is possible that it housed tigers years ago, and it is also possible that local tribal people used it as a safe shelter. Availability of water gives indication of this possibility. After visiting this cave, one needs to come back to the upper portion of Hundru fall to see few other things when going downwards. One of the important things is to visit Chonga Bhati by the side of the downstairs. It is a big field like rock on which there are a number of Chongas on its surface. It may be mentioned here that Chonga is made of bamboos. Any of the grown up bamboos is cut in small piece in such a way that only one knot remains. The other side is cut in slope that makes it an instrument to put traditional medicines and herb mixtures in it. This medicine is pourd in the mouth of ill oxes, cows, buffaloes etc in such a way that medicine easily goes down in the stomach of the animal. This chonga shaped rock cuts are found on this stone. Nobody knows whether these shapes are natural or man made. Bhati is also a word from local dialect which means oven which were especially used for making wine and liquor. Thus, Chonga Bhati meant a place for making liquor. However, such activity has never been seen by anyone. How this big rock came to be known as Chonga Bhati is a question of study that may reveal some of the mystery of the place. Moreover, this place is important for unique site scene of Hundru jungles and hillocks. One needs now to come back to the downstairs to proceed downwards to the lower plate. Just few stetps downwards, on the right hand side, there is the seat of Van Devi or Banjara Devi. Before the foolishly done present beautification work by the government of Jharkhand, one needed to go through the old way to find a heap of stones there. People used to put pebbles or stones there as obeisance to the deity for safe return from the jungle or from the other plate of the Earth below. The old pathway to this place has been blocked by our beautification experts ignoring the cultural, religious and sociological importance to the presiding goddes of the jungle. This place is now forgotten and the heap of stones and pebles is concealed under the shrubs. Government has done its so called duty to destroy the seat of the presiding goddes of the jungle in the name of beautification of the fall, but one should not forget to ask locals to show the place. The knowledge of a tradition has always been important for further development of our civilisation and nobody should be allowed to destroy any place of importance by blocking all the ways to that place. This place reminds us of the contemporary fact that certain forces are trying their best to destroy our culture and tradition in favour of their own. Go further downstairs with the thrill of seeing the beauty of the place along with the idea that there would be some step which may prove to be the last one on the upper plate of the earth. On the next step, just in a moment, one comepletly leaves the upper plate and step forward on the lower plate of the Earth. Here your you are at another part of the earth, geologically or geographycally. Just before you there is a small bridge to cross over, the water flows underneath from the northern part of the fall when it rains. Now, one is completely on the other part of the earth on the lower plate. When one is at the base of the fall, one feels there to be in another beautiful world. Grandeur of the fall is before you, with two water pools one at your front and the other at your back with downstream of Swarnrekha river slowly moving and disappearing at some distance in the east. The sun rise here is also worth seeing. When you stand facing the fall in front of you, you can clearly see the upper plate put over the lower plate. It is visible on both flanks of the pool. There on the left hand side lies the Saints' Cave, or Sadhu Gufa. You might have heard that mendicants and saints used to metitate in caves in ancient times. Here you can see the continuation of such a cave on the left flank of the pool, where saints and priests meditate and worship. The local priest, who is called Bhokta or Pahan, come to worship here on certain auspicious days of the year. Meditation inside cave is not a story of the bygone era, but it is alive here. One can see the marks of worship on the door of the cave. People know one of the saints who meditated inside this cave in recent years who is alive and living at Kuju. When one stands at the door of the cave, one hears four distinct sounds. The first is the sound originating from the falling water of the river, the second originating from the collision of water and rocks, the third originating from falling of the river in the water pool, and the fourth is like thunder of the clouds. All these sounds are continuous. Let us remind an ancient way of yoga and meditation in the process of which one begins to here thundering sound without any cloud overcast. It is, in Indian philophy called "((Anhad)) garjai". It is the point when a saint begins to feel the heavenly bliss. It is the point of time when saint is believed to begin acquiring ((Asta Siddhi)) and "((Nau Nidhi))". It is certainly a pleasure to hear continued thundering sound here without any cloud overcast. The question remains unsolved as to what is inside the Saint's Cave. One of the saints and local priest have already told people that they heard there about 25 feet inside sound of drum beatings and Jhals (pair of musical instruments made of raound metal plates usually of bronze). Beyond this point the cave trifurcates and nobody has yet entered to see what is there in them. It is reported by one of the persons mentioned above that he saw a lamp like object which had lightened one dancing troupe of aborigins, some in postures of worshiping, and a tiger. All of them disappeared in few moments, he claimed. He further claimed that he saw a door of rock which suddenly closed in his front. He was then frightened and rushed out of the cave. It might be hallucination, but, in any case, the mystery of cave is yet unresolved. One might cross over the river to hillock no 2 to see the power house and to see the other side of the beauty from there, or else come back to the upper plate again through the same stairs. Having seen this fall, one might think to go further to exlore the beauty of nature. There is another fall nearby, only about five kilometres away called Badhka Gadha. There is no tourist activities there because there is no approach road. Badhka Gadha (the big ditch) falls is about 195 feet high and it yet retains almost unhindered beauty and grandeur. It is unknown to the tourists and outside world. However, there is another fall nearby called Gautam Dhara which is only 144 feet in height with an approach road. One may decide to visit some other interesting places including ((Paina Pahad)) from where the whole area including Ranchi and Gola in Hazaibag district is visible. It may be worth mentioning again that there are atleast six waterfalls in Angara block. There are many hills, rivulets and waterbodies including the Getalsud Dam. One may also decide to visit ((Gautam Dhara or Jonha Fall)).